Few Tips to make openSUSE 12.2 (KDE) run faster

As I’ve pointed out in the review, openSUSE 12.2 is one of the fastest KDE based distributions that I’ve used so far. It boots fast (not as fast as Gnome or Unity does but) uses less system resources and comes with a robust KDE desktop (except I’m having issues with the OS responsiveness while copying files).

However, there are few other things that you can still do to cut-out 7-8 seconds from the OS boot-time and I thought if you’re a new user then writing a short post about some of things would come in handy. So here it goes …

Basically there are two KDE desktop related tools and few services and 2 systems services that you can disable in openSUSE 12.2. This might not sound like much, but after doing so, as said above, I was able to cut-out 7-8 seconds from the boot-up process plus freed-up about 60-70MB from the RAM as well.

Few things that you should consider …

You can remove a tool called ‘Klipper’ and ‘Nepomuk’ to speed up the desktop loading time. But please remember that these tools have their uses. For example, let’s say that after quitting ‘Klipper’ you mounted a MS Windows partition in Dolphin (file manager) and then selected a file to copy. Then if you close Dolphin’s window and re-open your home folder and tried to paste the file there, then the ‘paste’ command won’t work because as soon as you close ‘Dolphin’ that memory is lost in KDE.

However, if you had ‘Klipper’ running from the system background (default setting) then whether you close Dolphin or not, you’ll always be able to use that ‘paste’ command. So I leave you with the decision.

Also the other tool named ‘Nepomuk’ (a system resources eater :D) is a desktop indexing system that basically lets you find files and folders fast. However, even without it you can still search in KDE (Dolphin for example) and you might not get extremely fast and filtered results, but if you’re not in need of such a tool (it doesn’t index system files in your computer) then unlike the above mentioned ‘Klipper’, I highly recommend that you remove it too.

But if you like, then you can set a maximum allowed memory usage for the ‘Nepomuk’ indexer manually which would still let you use it, but will make it use less system resources.

So if you’ve understood the pros and cons, then let’s get on with the removal now shall we :).

Step 1: If you want to remove ‘Klipper’ then once your desktop loads search for a scissors icon (as shown below) and left click on it then from the menu that you get simply choose ‘Quit’.

Some of these screenshots look weird without the mouse pointer but for some reason KDE couldn’t grab it. Sorry about that …

Then when asked choose ‘Do not start’. You can enable this tool anytime you want by simply searching for it in the start menu and opening it.

Step 2: Click on the start menu icon and search for the term ‘desktop search’ and click on the icon to open its configuration window as shown below.

Then under the ‘Basic Settings’ tab, remove the check-mark under the option ‘Enable Nempomuk Semantic Search’ to disable it completely and click on the ‘Apply’ button and close its window.

If you don’t want it to be disabled but only want to reduce its memory usage, then set your value (in Mega Bytes) under the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab.

(Don’t follow the this step if you’ve decided to keep it) then to click on the small pyramid icon (near the clock) on your bottom panel and from the menu choose ‘Desktop Search File Indexing’ and right click and choose ‘Quit’ (as shown below) then also choose ‘Quit’ form the next message and it’ll not bother you again.

openSUSE 12.2 also comes with 2 rarely used system services related to virtualization. If you don’t know what that means or if you don’t really need them, then you can also disable them to speed up the booting process as well. For that use the below procedure.

Step 3: Search for ‘yast’ in the start menu and launch the ‘YaST Control Center’. Then from its window, from your left choose the ‘System’ icon and then from your right click on the icon that says ‘System Services (runlevel)’ as shown below.

Then search for two services called ‘vboxadd’ and ‘vmtoolsd’. Now select each service individually and click on the ‘Disable’ button to disable them. Once done click on the ‘OK’ button and when asked click ‘Yes’.

Step 4: Again search for ‘configure desktop’ after clicking on the start menu and open it. Then from its icons click on that which says ‘Startup and Shutdown’ under the ‘System Settings’ sub heading.

Then from your left, click on ‘system services’ icon and then to your left, under ‘Startup Services’ you can remove few KDE based system services as well.

If you’ve removed the ‘Nepomuk’ desktop then remove the check mark under ‘Nepomuk Search Module’ and I also remove the ‘Free Space Notifier’ (optional). There are few other things that you can get rid of, but if you have a network or an Internet connect, then it’s best to leave them as they are :).

After all is done, click on the ‘Apply’ button and close the window. Then reboot your computer and you should see an improvement in the booting speed. Good luck.

Gayan,
Thank you very much for these tips — they are exactly what I needed, I support my wife’s openSUSE/KDE computer, and she does not archive emails. She has about 2 GB of saved emails, and I am pretty sure that the reason her PC’s CPU usage oscillated between 99 and 100% was because of nepomuk indexing the emails. Working on her PC was painful, to say the least. I used your tips to disable nepomuk desktop indexing (which also disabled the email indexing), and now her CPU usage is around 25 to 35% when idle. The PC now is actually responsive. Thanks!!